We love the DR connections, the friends and the beautiful country but the down side is always missing family and missing out on special occasions. This last winter was no exception. The grandkids are involved in activities and lessons, including music theatre, musical performances, gymnastics (pre-competitive and competitive), fiddling, skating. We missed a photography show in an art gallery in BC. One grand daughter competed in the Manitoba Winter Games and came back with some medals!
We are very appreciative of the family keeping us posted on all these activities and there are still some home videos we want to see to finish catching up.
About two weeks after arriving home and before I returned to work, we did a quick road trip to BC again to visit family. We spent 4 days with them and got to be a part of their family times and got reacquainted with an energetic 2 year old and the two girls. We hiked the trail below their property, went out for ice cream, played around with the spanish language. Beautiful times.
It is good to be back in a routine, working mornings and getting opportunities to hang out with family here. The girls had a sleep over here a couple of weeks ago and we tried to cram in as much as we could from visiting a favourite playground to a campfire, making butter and watching a movie. They are always ready to get into it.
Now our globe trotting sons are back in Canada and we are excited to have them settle down for now. Looking forward to more road trips and meeting their new puppy!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Passage of Time
The winter in the DR was filled with lots of activity, rain, sun, sand, and precious time with both Dominican friends and visiting Canadians. We were priveleged to help with some leadership/translation with a work group from the Open Door church in Morris (See their DR Report 2010 at www.opendoorchurch.ca/). It was an active group, having joined a group of young people from Kitchener Ontario. We painted buildings, played with children, visited an orphanage, toured villages, among the many activities. What a quality group.
We were able to add to some existing projects by assisting getting interior walls plastered in a new church building being constructed in Villa Liberacion. We helped our friends from Winnipeg, Lee & Gerri, throw a hot dog bbq/picnic in the country, in Arroyo Seco where the DCI sponsored school is situated. It was a festive happy day.
There were several more projects such as coordinating tiling of the pastor family's new home in A.S. and construction of a water tank stand. The plumbing was hooked up to the water tank placed on it so they now have access to water (gravity flow) when the electricity is off in the community.
We were incredibly moved when invited to accompany the pastor and his wife and a few of the local women in climbing the prayer mountain behind the school property. The women ascend the high hill almost daily for worship and prayer time. There is a definite sense of reverence and awe as they pour out their hearts unashamedly. We prayed together and then they encircled us and prayed passionately over us. They are so poor by our standards and yet so rich in faith, love and devotion.
The last month there, I hurriedly picked up the laptop computer in its carrying case to take it out and did not realize the case was unzipped. The computer fell on the tile floor and the screen broke. It was heartbreaking as that meant we had no access to the hard drive to empty our pictures from the camera and we were dependent on internet cafes for communication.
It is now fixed and we are off and running again. We were gone from Jan 3 to March 30 and came back to an amazing spring in Winnipeg.
We were able to add to some existing projects by assisting getting interior walls plastered in a new church building being constructed in Villa Liberacion. We helped our friends from Winnipeg, Lee & Gerri, throw a hot dog bbq/picnic in the country, in Arroyo Seco where the DCI sponsored school is situated. It was a festive happy day.
There were several more projects such as coordinating tiling of the pastor family's new home in A.S. and construction of a water tank stand. The plumbing was hooked up to the water tank placed on it so they now have access to water (gravity flow) when the electricity is off in the community.
We were incredibly moved when invited to accompany the pastor and his wife and a few of the local women in climbing the prayer mountain behind the school property. The women ascend the high hill almost daily for worship and prayer time. There is a definite sense of reverence and awe as they pour out their hearts unashamedly. We prayed together and then they encircled us and prayed passionately over us. They are so poor by our standards and yet so rich in faith, love and devotion.
The last month there, I hurriedly picked up the laptop computer in its carrying case to take it out and did not realize the case was unzipped. The computer fell on the tile floor and the screen broke. It was heartbreaking as that meant we had no access to the hard drive to empty our pictures from the camera and we were dependent on internet cafes for communication.
It is now fixed and we are off and running again. We were gone from Jan 3 to March 30 and came back to an amazing spring in Winnipeg.
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